Wallingford Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

WALLINGFORD, CT — A Sheehan High School student and eight students from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford have been named semifinalists for the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation this week announced the names of more than 16,000 semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

According to a news release provided by the program, these academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring.

Espen A. Fenstad of Mark T. Sheehan High School is a semifinalist, along with the following students from Choate: Emma C. Bowles, James W. Denison, Sarina D. Fernandez-Grinshpun, Nilan Kathir, Peisong Li, Celeste M. Shattuck, Alexander C. Wang, and Jingyuan Zhang.

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

To become a finalist, a semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received, according to the program.

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

From over 16,000 semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist stage, with notification coming next February. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference, according to the program.

Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2025. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.

About 770 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 130 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor's employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located, according to the program.

In addition, about 150 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 3,600 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.